Video to ASCII Art Converter
Transform video files or webcam streams into real-time ASCII art. Adjust resolution, contrast, and character sets for retro visual effects.
Select a video source to begin
About
This tool transforms digital video signals into ASCII Art - a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable characters defined by the ASCII standard. Unlike simple image filters, this converter processes the luminance of every frame in real-time.
The conversion process relies on analyzing the pixel data of a video stream. For every target position in the grid, the algorithm calculates the perceived brightness of the corresponding pixel area using standard coefficients for Red, Green, and Blue channels. This brightness value L determines which character is selected from a sorted density ramp.
Due to the rectangular nature of font characters (which are typically taller than they are wide), this tool automatically applies an aspect ratio correction factor to ensure the output image retains the correct proportions of the original video.
Formulas
To convert a colored pixel into a single grayscale character, we calculate its Luminance Y. The formula weights the color channels according to human eye sensitivity:
Where:
- R = Red Channel intensity (0-255)
- G = Green Channel intensity (0-255)
- B = Blue Channel intensity (0-255)
The resulting Y is then mapped to an index i in the character string:
Reference Data
| Scale Name | Character Ramp (Dark to Light) | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Standard (Short) | @%#*+=-:. | 10 chars |
| Detailed (Long) | $@B%8&WM#*oahkbdpqwmZO0QLCJUYXzcvunxrjft/\|()1{}[]?-_+~<>i!lI;:,"^`'. | 69 chars |
| Blocks | █▓▒░ | 5 chars |
| Binary | 01 | 2 chars |
| Matrix | ﾊﾐﾋｰｳｼﾅﾓﾆｻﾜﾂｵﾘｱﾎﾃﾏｹﾒｴｶｷﾑﾕﾗｾﾈｽﾀﾇﾍ123457890:・.=*+-<> | 55 chars |